1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to grippers, particularly self-tightening pivotable grippers.
2. The Prior Art
Various grippers have been devised to hold objects e.g. on a line such as negatives in a dark room or clothes on a clothesline and the like. Particularly well known, for example, are spring clothespins which pivot around a spring member, which spring holds the jaws closed and pivot arms connected to such jaws open. Pressing the arms together opens the jaws and releasing the arms, closes the jaws with a grip that is determined by the strength of the pivot spring. The problem with such type of pivot pin is that the grip thereof may not be strong enough to hold certain objects e.g. wet towels or jackets to a clothesline, particularly on a windy day.
Previously a gripping device, including a clothespin, has been designed by me in which two pin members each have a jaw and a pivot arm and a pivot portion therebetween and a spring that bends around and joins the pin members at the respective pivot portions, so that jaws and pivot arms are positioned in opposed relationship, the spring having an extension which spans a substantial portion of the space between the pivot arms. See my patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,920,365 (1960). The drawback with this gripping device was that a) the leaf spring did not extend into the jaw area of the device to steady the jaw portions in close alignment and b) that portion of the spring that extended upwardly into one of the arms (and then turned and extended in a span between the pivot arms of the gripping device) had no back wall support in one of the pivot arms to rest against and under the outward pressure of e.g. a clothesline, the spring span would be pulled out of the pin assembly or nearly so, imparing the effectiveness thereof.
Accordingly, there is a need and market for a gripper that has an improved spring configuration and improved spring reinforcement in a pin member thereof, so as to substantially overcome the above prior art shortcomings.
There has now been discovered an improved gripper in which the spring member thereof, which unites the gripping pins together at a pivot portion thereof, holds the gripper jaws together in close alignment and in which the extension of such spring is reinforced by one of the gripper pivot arms so as to resist disengagement of the spring span when outward pressure is applied thereto, e.g. on a clothesline, so that an improved gripper that is more sturdy and stable is provided in the present invention.